A second offender has admitted seriously injuring a man during what a prosecutor has previously described as "blatant thuggery at the local shops".
CCTV cameras captured George Dritsas, 53, kicking a man in the face and repeatedly stomping on the victim's ankle during a brazen bashing in Latham in September 2020.
Police could not find him for years after the attack, which occurred in broad daylight in front of terrified witnesses, with the ACT Supreme Court previously told he was believed to be hiding in Melbourne.
He was finally charged in April and, last week, pleaded guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.
While agreed facts are yet to be tendered in Dritsas' case, significant details have already been revealed during the sentencing of co-offender Jamie Stewart Kinsela.
Kinsela, a 52-year-old former drone company operator, was sentenced in 2021 to two years and 10 months in jail over his role in the attack.
During his sentencing, former chief justice Helen Murrell outlined how the violence meted out by Kinsela and Dritsas had left a cannabis thief in need of live-saving surgery.
Chief Justice Murrell said Kinsela was "incensed" after the victim broke into his home and stole his drugs while his daughter was asleep.
Kinsela and Dritsas, who also lived at the home, sent the victim several threatening messages after reviewing security camera footage and discovering what he had done.
The pair became intent on tracking the victim down, even lurking outside his place in a car for several hours.
The offenders caught up with the victim on the morning of September 4, 2020, when they spotted the man on an oval near the Latham shops.
They chased the victim into the Latham Turkish Food Bar, where CCTV played during Kinsela's sentencing showed Dritsas kicking, punching and stomping on the man before taking his shoes.
After Dritsas had walked out, the victim crawled behind the counter.
Kinsela went back there and kicked the man, then dragged him all the way out the door by the hair and shirt.
Just outside the store, Kinsela punched the victim in the back of the head and stole his phone.
Prior to the rest of the incident playing out off camera, Dritsas stomped on the victim's right ankle five times and kicked him in the face.
Chief Justice Murrell said the offenders then tried to force the victim into the back of Dritsas' ute, with the 53-year-old warning the victim not to bleed in his vehicle.
"The more mess you make, the more we're going to hurt you," Dritsas told the cannabis thief.
Parts of what happened next could be heard in the background of a Triple Zero call made by a woman who lived nearby.
Yelling was audible as the panicked woman told the emergency call-taker: "Oh my God, they're putting him in the back of the ute. They're tying him up."
The woman screamed at the offenders to stop when she saw them grabbing rope from the back of the vehicle, distracting the attackers enough that the victim was able to get away.
Kinsela and Dritsas drove off in the ute, leaving the bleeding victim with the Triple Zero caller.
The operator praised the caller, telling her she "might have just saved that bloke's life".
The victim, who suffered a collapsed right lung, two broken ribs and a fractured right ankle, ultimately underwent emergency surgery at Canberra Hospital.
Despite being sentenced to nearly three years in jail, Kinsela was only required to serve 16 months of his sentence in full-time custody.
He was released from prison, with the balance of his backdated term suspended, in January 2022.
Dritsas, meanwhile, appeared before Supreme Court registrar Jayne Reece on Thursday morning.
Ms Reece ordered the unemployed man, who is currently on bail, to face Justice Verity McWilliam for sentencing on September 19.
